Simon Abkarian (born 5 March 1962) is a French-Armenian actor. Born in Gonesse, Val d'Oise, of Armenian descent, Abkarian spent his childhood in Lebanon. He moved to Los Angeles, where he joined an Armenian theater company managed by Gerald Papazian. He returned to France in 1985, settling in Paris. He took classes at the Acting International school, then he joined Ariane Mnouchkine's Théâtre du Soleil. Abkarian left the Théâtre du Soleil in 1993 and played in 2001 "Beast on the Moon" by Richard Kalinoski, directed by Irina Brook, a play about the life of a survivor of the Genocide of the Armenians, a role which won him critical acclaims and the Molière of the best comedian. His first roles in cinema were proposed by French filmaker Cédric Klapisch, who asked him to play in several of his movies, notably in "Chacun cherche son chat" ("When the Cat is Away" (1996) and in "Ni pour, ni contre (bien au contraire)" en 2003. He was featured in Sally Potter's Yes (2004), in which he played the lead role. Abkarian then played Mehdi Ben Barka in the thriller "J'ai vu tuer Ben Barka" by Serge Le Péron, about the kidnapping and the murder of the leader of the Moroccan opposition. He then played in "Prendre Femme" by Ronit Elkabetz which won him several interpretation prizes. Playing different roles and in different genres, he was featured in the adventure "Zaïna, cavalière de l'Atlas" by Bourlem Guerdjou, in the comedy "Le Démon de midi" by Marie-Pascale Osterriet. He has also appeared in Atom Egoyan's Ararat (2002), he was Albert in Almost Peaceful (2004) by French Director Michel Deville a film about Holocaust survivors, he was featured in "Your Dreams" (2005) by Denis Thybaud. He played the role of villain Alex Dimitrios in the James Bond film, Casino Royale. The character is a Government contractor and arms dealer working against Bond. He was featured as Sahak in the thriller "Les Mauvais Joueurs" ("The Gamblers") (2007) by Frédéric Balekdjian. He has also been the voice of Ebi in the French version of the animated feature "Persepolis". Abkarian played the role of the eminent Armenian poet Missak Manouchianin in "Army of Crime" (2010) by Robert Guédiguian, a French filmaker based in Marseilles, who is also of Armenian parentage. He has also played Dariush Bakhshi, the Iranian Special Consul, in the BBC drama Spooks MI-5. Abkarian is known for his intensity in acting and for his ecclectism in the roles he choses. Description above from the Wikipedia article Simon Abkarian, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia .

Фільмографія

• 2026De Gaulle: Liberté — Charles de Gaulle
• 2026De Gaulle: Résistance — Charles de Gaulle
• 2026Pacer
• 2026Playground — The Father
• Зниклий — Gaspard Drax
• 2025Chroniques d'un indic — Lakhdar
• 2025The 4th Wall — Marwan
• 2023Mémoires de Palestine — Narrator (voice)
• 2022Cop Goes Missing — Tristan
• 2022Electre des bas-fonds — Scenario Writer
• Notre-Dame — Max
• 2022Overdose — Daniel Prat
• 2022The Way to Happiness — Saül Birnbaum
• 2022Без упину — Antoine Marelli
• 2021Black Notebooks
• 2021Les Damnés de la Commune — Narrateur (voice)
• 2021Off-Season — Anthony
• 2021Permis de construire — Müller
• 2020Le dernier jour du jeûne — Writer
• Wonderland — Tony
• 2019Ce soir-là et les jours d'après — Karan
• 2019Rebels — Simon Bénéké, Sandra's father
• 2019Someone, Somewhere — Mansour
• 2019The Audition — Philippe
• 2019The Swallows of Kabul — Atiq (voice)
• 2018Cyrano, My Love — Ange Fleury
• 2018The Sonata — Charles Vernais
• 2017J'ai tué ma femme — Le patron du café
• 2017Journey from Greece — Kakourgos
• Playground — The Father
• 2017Овердрайв — Jacomo Morier
• 2016Chouf — Le libanais
• 2016Scribe — Gerfaut
• 20151915 — Simon
• 2015Don't Tell Me the Boy Was Mad — Hovannès Alexandrian
• Malaterra — Thomas Rotman
• 2015Tehlirian on Trial: Armenia's Avenger — Narrator
• 2014Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem — Elisha
• 2014The Cut — Krikor
• 2014Кольт 45 — Commander Luc Denard
• 2013Angélique — L'avocat François Desgrez
• 2013The Marchers — Le père de Farid
• Kaboul Kitchen — Colonel Amanullah
• 2012Qu'est-ce qu'on va faire de toi? — Abraham Drucker
• 2012Zarafa — Hassan (voice)
• 2012Тридцять хвилин по опівночі — Detainee on Monitor
• 2011Force — Jimi Weiss
• 2011Les Amants naufragés — Milo Garavan
• Tony's Revenge — Tony Roucas
• 2010Comme une ombre — Vincent
• 2010Turk's Head — Le veuf
• 2009Army of Crime — Missak Manouchian
• Pigalle, la nuit — Nadir Zainoun
• 2009Rage — Merlin
• 2008A Day at the Museum — Gilles Paulin
• 2008A World of Ours — L'oncle de Noé (voice)
• House of Saddam — Qais
• 2008Khamsa — Khamsa's Father
• 2008Le Menteur : La Pièce ! — Lelio
• 2008Minor Revelations
• 2008Secrets of State — Al Barad
• 2008The Seven Days — Eliyau
• 2008The Wedding Song — Raoul
• 2008The ben barka affair — le général Oufkir, ministre marocain de l'intérieur
• 2007New Délire — Gunter (voice)
• 2007Trivial — Pierre
• 2007Версія — Said Abdel Aziz
• 2007Персеполіс — Marjane's Father (voice)
• 2006007: Казино Рояль — Alex Dimitrios
• 2006Armenia — Sarkis Arabian
• 2006The Snake — Sam
• 2005I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed — Mehdi Ben Barka
• 2005In Your Dreams — Wilson
• 2005Les mauvais joueurs — Sahak
• 2005S.A.C. : Des hommes dans l'ombre — Cesari
• 2005The Demon Stirs — Julien Cestac
• 2005Yes — He
• 2005Zaina: Rider of the Atlas — Omar
• 2004To Take A Wife — Eliyahoo
• 2003Not For, or Against (Quite the Contrary) — Freddy
• 2003The Legend of Princess Parva — Swami (voice)
• 2002Almost Peaceful — Albert
• 2002Aram — Aram
• 2002Ararat — Arshile Gorky
• Spooks — Dariush Bakhshi
• 2002Правда про Чарлі — Lieutenant Dessalines
• 1999Lila Lili — Simon
• 1997J'irai au paradis car l'enfer est ici — Simon
• 1997Tempest in a Teapot
• 1997The Silence of Rak — Customer
• 1996When the Cat's Away — Carlos
• 1995Мертвий іде — Thanks
• 1994Ana El Awan
• 1994The Goldfish — Customer
• 1989La nuit miraculeuse
• God Will Know His Own
• Malin Fors

Ток-шоу, премії та інші появи (2)

• Bonsoir bonsoir! — Self
• 2016Il était une fois... « Le procès de Viviane Amsalem » — Self